CNN doesn’t dispute sting video, but media still skeptical

In the video, published online Tuesday night by the right-leaning Project Veritas website, CNN medical team producer John Bonifield is seen discussing his network’s coverage of the Russia story. He said it’s done mostly to generate higher ratings, even though the issue “could be bullshit.”

After the video surfaced, a spokesperson for CNN did not object to any of its content and only said the network “stands by our medical producer John Bonifield” because “diversity of personal opinion is what makes CNN strong, we welcome it and embrace it.”

Still, the New York Times did not cover the video, and seemed to dismiss it in a story published Tuesday night related to the White House’s criticism of CNN. The Times referred to the sting operation in passing as “a video filmed by a controversial right-wing activist, James O’Keefe, that showed a low-level CNN producer criticizing his network.”

Bonifield is not a “low-level” producer, but rather a supervising producer who works on CNN’s coverage of health issues.

In the sting video, Bonifield described a CNN “internal meeting” wherein the network’s CEO (presumably Jeff Zucker, the president of CNN Worldwide) congratulated the staff on covering the Paris Climate Deal but then directed everyone to resume coverage on Trump and Russia.

The Washington Post also did not cover the video’s content, and instead did what the Times did. It published a story Tuesday night about White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders criticizing CNN.

In the story, the Post described the sting video as “purportedly showing a CNN employee, who was not responsible for the network’s coverage of the Russia investigation, criticizing the network,” even though Bonifield said in the video he was present for editorial meetings related to the networks’ coverage of Russia and that CNN did not discount his opinions about it.